Jon Perr writes,

Four days after Arianna Huffington first reported it, John McCain’s 2000 VoteGate has become the election issue du jour. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have all run stories confirming Huffington’s account that in 2000 a still steaming McCain did not vote for George W. Bush, the man who savaged him and his family during the Republican primaries.

Of course McCain tried to lie about it to Bill O'Reilly - but his tongue slipped and he accidentally told the truth!

O'REILLY: Did you vote for President Bush?

MCCAIN: Of course not.

Beyond McCain's guilty conscience, and all the witnesses at the Hollywood dinner party, there is more evidence McCain voted against Bush in 2000. In the spring of 2001, McCain seriously considered leaving the Republican Party and caucusing with Senate Democrats!

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist... 

Daschle said that throughout April and May of 2001, he and McCain “had meetings and conversations on the floor and in his office, I think in mine as well, about how we would do it, what the conditions would be. We talked about committees and his seniority … [A lot of issues] were on the table.”

Absolutely not so, according to McCain. In a statement released by his campaign, McCain said, “As I said in 2001, I never considered leaving the Republican Party, period.”

So who are you going to believe, McCain or a half-dozen Democrats who participated in these discussions?

Other senators who played major roles in the intense recruiting effort, according to Democrats, were then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) as well as Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

All of McCain's semi-Democratic friends know it's true, but now they're either lying or covering it up. The liar is John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist, who actually started the conversation with Tom Downey. The coverup is by Marshall Wittman

a McCain loyalist and strategist six years ago, put the odds of McCain leaving the Republican Party at “50-50.” Wittman, who now works for Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), declined to comment for this article.

Two other obvious witnesses were not interviewed: Jim Jeffords, who actually left the Republican Party to caucus with Democrats that spring, and Lincoln Chafee, who got close but chickened out.